Finally! The Voice stops poaching American Idol for successful alums is giving their winning alums the spotlight. Instead of bringing on superstar artists to advise during the upcoming Knockout rounds, each coach will be aided by a former winner of the show.
Yahoo music reports that starting with the Knockout Rounds on Monday, April 2, Season 3’s Cassadee Pope will advise Team Kelly Clarkson, Season 9’s Jordan Smith will advise his former Team Adam Levine, season 12’s Chris Blue will advise his former Team Alicia Keys, and last season’s Chloe Kohanski will return to the show to help out her former Team Blake Shelton.
As advisers during the Knockout Rounds, Cassadee, Jordin, Chris and Chloe will work with and mentor the remaining 32 artists with coaches. Then, for their Knockout performance, the artists will be paired against a teammate once more. This time, they will each select their own song to perform individually, and the coaches alone will choose the winner from their team to move on to the Live Playoff shows.
In a new twist, the Knockout Rounds will introduce the “Save,” a format change that gives each coach one chance to keep a deserving artist who did not win their Knockout on their team. But with the “steals” still in play, the artist can potentially choose to go with a different coach, leading to even tougher decisions for the coaches and artists. Each coach will have one “save” and one “steal” during the Knockouts, and the Top 24 artists will move on to the Live Playoffs.
The new twist seems like another way for the coaches to choose wildcards–but more limited. While wildcards could be any worthy castoff–here the coaches are limited to the pool of their own eliminated knockout contestants. But then another coach can steal their choice, which seems a little complicated.
For season 13, current coach Kelly Clarkson served as a key advisor. In the past, honors went to other heavy hitters such as Chris Martin, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Chris Martin, and Shania Twain.
Even if The Voice hasn’t shot any of their winners to stardom, bringing them on as mentors is still a great idea. Frankly, it should have been a thing a few seasons ago.
The Voice seems to be really trying to acknowledge their alums these days. There is the Neon Dreams Las Vegas residency kicking off in June, starring Alisan Porter (Season 10 winner), Chris Mann (Season 2), Matthew McAndrew (Season 7 runner-up), Mary Sarah (Season 10), Matthew Schuler (Season 5), Michael Sanchez (Season 11) and Chloe Kohanski. Additionally, Alicia Keys has taken her winning team member, Chris Blue under her wing. She’s managing his career as well as executive producing his upcoming debut album.
The Voice Battle Rounds conclude tonight (March 27) beginning at 8 pm ET on NBC. If you need to catch up, the network is airing a 2 hour clip show on Wednesday (March 28). And then the Knockouts begin next week. LIVE shows begin with the Playoffs on April 16.
